Pheasant Thai Green Curry

Thai curries are in many ways the ultimate 30-minute meal. Add coconut milk, a little water or stock, meat or fish of your choice, curry paste of your choice, whatever veggies you have around, some fresh herbs and bang! Done.

I am pretty sure most of you have had a Thai curry, but if you haven’t, they are lighter, brighter and to my mind more approachable than Indian curries. I find myself tiring of Indian curry, but I never tire of Thai ones.

There are lots of different kinds, but the basics are red, green and massaman, which is yellow. I tend to do green curry with fish, or with light-colored meats — in this case skinless pheasant breasts.

I can hear some of you: You’re wondering why I’d rely on a store-bought curry paste. Well, for whatever reason, the premade curry pastes stand up really well compared to the homemade stuff. I’ve done it by hand it it’s great, but not so much better that I feel the need to start from scratch every time.

Photo by Holly A. Heyser

My advice: Buy a selection of these curry pastes, a bottle of fish sauce and a few cans of coconut milk to keep around the house. They’ll all last for months (years, even!) and, armed with them, you can whip up something addicting and exotic in the time it takes to cook the rice you eat with this curry.

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Thai Green Curry Pheasant

Prep Time

15mins

Cook Time

20mins

Total Time

35mins

I use pheasant here, but obviously chicken, any other white-meat poultry or rabbit would work here, as would pork. It's a super easy recipe to make if you have coconut milk and Thai green curry paste available, which is no longer so hard. Look for them in the "ethnic" sections of most supermarkets. I highly recommend buying Mae Ploy Thai green curry paste. The stuff is great and it lasts forever in the fridge; I've had some last more than a year. I have snow peas in this curry, but use whatever you want, so long as it's green. Asparagus, regular peas, sugar snap peas, more herbs, bok choy, green beans -- you get the point. Serve the curry with long-grain rice and a lager beer.

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Thai

Serves: 4people

Author: Hank Shaw

Ingredients

1small onion,sliced thinly from root to tip

1tablespoonpeanut or other vegetable oil

Salt

1 15-ouncecan of coconut milk

1/4cupchicken stock(optional)

3citrus leaves(optional)

2tablespoonsfish sauce or 1 tablespoon soy sauce

3to 4 tablespoons green curry paste

1poundskinless pheasant breasts,cut into bite-sized pieces

1to 4 serrano or jalapeno chiles,sliced thin

1/2poundsnow peas

1/3cupchopped Thai basil or cilantro

Instructions

Heat the oil over high heat in a wok or large frying pan. Sear the onion over high heat, stirring it often, until it browns on the edges. Salt the onion as it cooks.

Pour in the coconut milk and the stock if using. Fill the coconut milk can halfway with water and pour that in, too. If you are not using stock, fill the can all the way up and pour the whole can into the pan. Add the citrus leaves if you're using them, as well as the fish sauce and the curry paste. Bring this to a boil, then simmer it for 15 minutes.

Add the pheasant breast and simmer gently 5 minutes, then add the chiles and snow peas and simmer another 5 to 8 minutes. Stir in the basil or cilantro and serve.

Wondering a thing, Hank. Neither of us are particularly heat sensitive. Made ours with Mae Ploy green curry paste (our long time favorite brand) and no jalapenos. With 2 Tbs., it was hot. Neither of us are particularly heat sensitive. Is the Tbs. possibly a misprint and it’s supposed to be tsp.?

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[…] Few things are better than a hearty meal to warm you up on a cold day. And a lot of the Northeast could really use a warming up this weekend. That’s why this week’s Friday Feast is a delicious Pheasant Green Curry courtesy Hank Shaw at Hunter Angler Gardener Cook. […]